WSU will end up in a bowl game, guaranteed

PULLMAN – In this country, says Mike Leach, “bowl eligible” doesn’t mean “bowl guaranteed.”

And the Washington State coach is right, technically. The NCAA says football teams can play in the postseason if they have a 6-6 record or better (or a 6-7 record if they’re willing to play at Hawaii during the regular season).

But there will be 40 bowl games, not counting the national championship, played at the conclusion of this season. What that means is 80 out of 127 FBS teams are going somewhere for the holidays.

The college bowl game complex needs more 6-6 teams, not fewer, and certainly isn’t going to deny a berth to WSU even if the Cougars somehow stagger to an 0-3 finish.

For WSU (6-3, 4-2 Pac-12), which has already secured a bowl-ready record, justifying their bowl certainty with six losses is purely academic, of course. With two sub-.500 opponents left on the schedule in Colorado and Washington, the Cougars have a better chance of finishing 9-3 than 6-6.

And this, in a year when it seems like that at least one 5-7 team will make the postseason out of necessity.

So while the Cougars are understandably reluctant to consider their postseason reward for a non-losing season, others have begun to look at the Pac-12 standings and prognosticate where WSU might end up.

The Pac-12 has tie-ins with seven bowl games, including the Rose Bowl in years when it is not hosting a playoff game. If the Cougars can finish with the third-best record in the Pac-12 – providing a conference team plays in the college football playoff – then they will head to San Antonio to take on the Big 12’s No. 2 team in the Alamo Bowl.

Prominent bowl game projector Jerry Palm of CBS Sports projects the Cougars will head to El Paso to play in the Sun Bowl, which is slotted to host the Pac-12’s No. 5 team. But the bowls do have some flexibility with those slots. A bowl game’s directors can move down one slot, taking the No. 5 team rather than the No. 4 team, say, if they believe that will be to their benefit.

The Cougars are currently one of four Pac-12 teams with a 4-2 conference record, but have a tie-breaking win over Oregon. The Cougars would need to lose all three of their remaining games, and have California and UW each go 3-0, to be left out of the Pac-12’s bowl game slate.

But even in that scenario the Cougars would certainly be selected for an at-large berth by a bowl game that has a tie-in with a conference that did not have a sufficient number of eligible teams.

The Cougars could end up anywhere from Las Vegas to Santa Clara and their destination will likely remain unknown until after all the conferences have played their championship games.

But it is certain that the Cougars will be heading to their second bowl game in three years.